A Very Skulduggery Christmas

My niece and I are fans of  Skulduggery Pleasant  by Derek Landy. I am, in fact, Rebecca's Skulduggery supplier. Seven Skulduggery Pleasant books were published in the United Kingdom. For some misguided and lame-brained reason, only three were published in the United States. I began feeling anxious for Pleasant back in 2009 when I read that Landy was making appearances in this country hoping to help the series catch on here. What was the problem? Were they too clever and witty? Did someone object because this fantasy wasn't all doom and gloom? Well, okay, it was pretty doom and gloom what with Skulduggery being dead and all and fighting some group that often seemed unbeatable. So if depressing tragedy is a requirement for fantasy on this side of the Atlantic, the books had it. They were just amusing about it. Is that a crime?

And at the end of the third book, our hero suffered a major setback. Rebecca and I have been left hanging for a year or two now.

Well, anyway, I ordered a copy of Volume Four from merry old England. The seller claimed to have a used copy that was like new and the fee for mailing it was incredibly reasonable. Unreasonably reasonable, I feared. The book wasn't going to arrive until after Christmas, but Rebecca is cool. She'd be happy to know it was coming.

Except it isn't coming! It's here! It arrived yesterday and the description "like new" was entirely accurate. The book looks fantastic. And it's English. I hope it's full of Englishisms like lorry for truck and lift for elevator.

Merry Christmas to me! I mean...to Rebecca.

I better go wrap it right away.